Chapter
10
SALES SKILLS
If you don’t believe in your project, you will not be able to sell it.
Some years ago, when I (Bucero) worked for a multinational company, my manager said to me, “You don’t have sales skills. You will not ever be able to sell any project at all. You are too good—in a world of wolves, you cannot be a lamb.” As the years passed, I observed my business results, and I noticed that many of my project sales were indirect, meaning that I am selling when I am delivering a project. I also am selling when consulting within an organization. My only lament is, how much more effective could I have been if I had consciously embraced the sales process?
When dealing with external clients or customers, we are always on display. Customers look for professional behavior as one measure of credibility. They observe project managers almost all the time, looking for professional conduct, reactions and behaviors, how they make decisions, and how they deal with people. They also look to these people as trusted advisors—people whose opinions they seek out when making decisions. Sharing opinions is part of the selling process.
Within organizations, creating awareness of project management’s true potential and value at a strategic level increasingly involves selling project management as a core, necessary discipline. Project management professionals do not exist in a vacuum; they work in organizations, and they need to convince their managers of the value of project management. This means selling project management to make others aware of the benefits not only for a particular project but within the entire business context.
Depending on their maturity level, organizations react differently to project management initiatives. Project management has greatly evolved over the last decade. Starting a PMI chapter in your part of the world helps create project management awareness, but in and of itself, that is not enough to advance the profession. We have found that one of the keys to gaining project management acceptance is to spend time explaining the meaning of project management to executives. However, these people are not always available and ready to listen to you.
In this chapter, we address the selling skills required of complete project managers. Actually, all professionals, and most everybody for that matter, can advance their causes and their careers by recognizing the need for and developing sales skills. We provide further detail about the more formal sales proposal process when responding to requests for proposals.
So what are the sales skills the complete project manager needs to develop? We believe that the first skill is to learn to sell your value and experience. Projects are led by people. Customers may buy, or not buy, depending on the people who are leading the project. Selling yourself is related to self-image, credibility, integrity and authenticity, speaking the truth, and knowing customers and their organization very well. These things take time and effort, so plan to put in that effort.
I (Bucero) was part of an international team at Hewlett-Packard. That group implemented project management offices worldwide. The program manager made an extraordinary effort to explain to each management team how the PMO added value to project team members, to the organization and to customers, and provided visible signs of management commitment, competent team support, and improved project and organizational performance.
The key to getting upper management support at this point (selling the project) was showing how the PMO solved current problems and provided immense business impact. A complete business case was presented to executives (it was written in “management-speak”).
The PMO stakeholders were the managers of the businesses and solutions that influenced both end users and upper managers. Through a stakeholder analysis, I could determine how different individuals influenced decisions throughout the project. This kind of analysis helped me understand the levels of concern and authority of management teams—and how those behaviors or patterns influence the delivery of results by project managers.
A short-term business orientation is not compatible with a project-oriented business approach. Projects need to be planned and implemented; project managers need to be trained, mentored, and coached; and projects need sponsors. At HP, for example, I sold the need to upper managers to be trained in sponsorship. I was able to demonstrate that, although the project sponsors were not active members of the team, they were a resource that served as motivators and barrier-busters. Most upper managers believe project management is something tactical and relevant to project managers only. I spent significant time delivering short talks and workshops, speaking the language that upper management understands—talking about profit, strategy, goals, and how to get better results. I did many face-to-face meetings with different management levels, but I was not successful at the beginning. Persistence and discipline were the keys to project success.
SALES PLANNING
Every activity benefits from careful planning. Planning is important to salespeople because they are the people who connect directly with customers, and their success or failure largely depends upon their sales skills. Therefore, a sales planning structure needs to be prepared carefully. Project managers go through this process when they collaborate closely with salespeople during the early stages of customer project life cycles. We highly recommend that complete project managers get involved early in selling cycles. Their presence brings subject matter expertise, credibility, and commitment to the table. They can also ward off ill-advised projects, and they get advance notice of upcoming project requirements. One may never know exactly when the sales process begins, so recognize that sales can happen at any time, and be prepared to shift into a sales mentality at a moment’s notice.
A sample structure for call planning includes a series of steps. Each step needs to be completed before moving to the next step:
Set an appointment for a meeting.
Set a meeting with the decisionmaker.
Set a meeting to present the proposal.
Determine future business opportunities.
Mastering the sales planning process unlocks more sales potential quicker than any other process. Become skilled at a well-defined sales process that you can follow and learn from. Know also that a good sales process mirrors the pattern by which customers make buying decisions.
Some salespeople fail to follow a selling process that facilitates relationship-building with the buyer because they do not see the importance of building relationships with buyers. Customers make decisions through five sequential buying decisions in the following order: salesperson, product, company, price, time to buy. So, if salespeople are not dedicated to serving customers and presenting to customers what they really need, those sellers will be out of sync with buyers.
QUESTIONING SKILLS
Questions are the number-one tool salespeople have for engaging the prospect, building rapport, discovering needs, agreeing on those needs, controlling the conversation, and managing the entire sell cycle. The best sales questions start with “what,” “why,” or “how” and are open-ended. They encourage customers to talk about issues they are facing. This gives the salesperson clues to ask deeper questions—questions about specific customer needs she can meet. Poor questioning skills lead to resistance in the form of objections later in the sell cycle and do not facilitate relationship-building or company differentiation.
The Best Sales Questions to Ask
Questions help customers make their first key buying decision, which is whether to “buy” the salesperson. Questions build rapport and demonstrate interest in the customer. They uncover customer needs, who to call on, the decision-making time frame, competition, and how the customer will make the decision.
Examples of good sales questions include:
“What have you used in the past?”
“How was it implemented?”
“Why did you decide on that?”
As you ask open-ended questions to investigate customer needs, you will come upon some needs that seem to have a particular urgency. Whenever you suspect this is the case, ask a leverage question to confirm your hunch and clarify the situation.
“How has this problem affected you and your company?”
“What are the consequences if this problem continues?”
“How are your customers affected?”
These types of questions encourage customers to talk about the gut issues they are facing. By clarifying what is really at stake with a business problem or opportunity, leverage questions increase the customer’s desire for a solution. And they let the salesperson know how to present a product as the right solution to the right issues.
If you want to be positioned as the best or only solution for your customer, ask the best questions. Customers will view you as a consultant who has their best interests in mind.
FEATURES, BENEFITS, AND ADVANTAGES
FIGURE 10-1: Sales Skills
The classic sales approach, applicable to almost any environment, is to cover features, benefits, and advantages (see Figure 10-1) of a product or service. Use compelling wording and arguments; do not strive for a high score on the “jargon meter.”
If you know not what the customer (or stakeholder) most cares about, you may need to describe all features of your product or solution. A better approach is to focus on what the customer truly cares about. Provide details, a prototype, or a demonstration so the customer clearly understands the key features. “This project management office (PMO) addresses a key deficiency in the organization by providing a complete document management and retrieval system. Let me show you how it works.…”
Describe the benefits that accrue after these features are implemented. “This system relieves in-field consultants from time-consuming, low-value-added activities, provides increased quality assurance within the project delivery process through access to the most up-to-date documents, and serves as a breeding ground for knowledge sharing.”
Project how these benefits provide a competitive advantage for the organization. “Implementing this system means our customers will be served by the latest technology with error-free documentation, leading to more repeat business, and field consultants can spend more time addressing both existing and new customer requirements and turning them into sales.”
Steps in the selling process include:
Use management-speak when talking with upper managers.
Clearly identify the problem.
Present a compelling argument about how features will produce benefits.
Cover the advantages of this approach.
Prompt and listen for feedback.
Close and get the order.
DEALING WITH OBJECTIONS
Many people dread the inevitable moment when clients, customers, or executives raise questions or concerns about the proposed project. In reality, the opposite ought to be true. These objections are wonderful “gifts” given to you! Now you know what it takes to win the sale or get a commitment. Without this valuable information, you have to keep pitching all features, hoping something captures the customer’s interest. Objections open the door to win the sale—all you have to do is address them.
I (Bucero) was part of a team from a multinational firm preparing a project proposal for a telecom company in Spain. We worked on the proposal for two weeks, based on the RFP given by the customer. Some of the information was not clear enough for me, but salespeople from the seller organization did not allow us to meet the customer in order to clarify it. So we prepared our project proposal approach focused on our understanding of the RFP. Then we sent our proposal to the customer, and he invited us to defend our proposal. When we started the presentation, our customer started to make some objections. At the beginning, we tried to reinforce our points to win the proposal, but some minutes later we understood that we were lucky because we discovered that we had misunderstood several key things that would be crucial for project success. The customer’s objections made us ask more concrete questions. We finally decided to rewrite our project proposal.
Make it a point to ask for questions and issues about the proposal. Listen carefully, and ask clarifying questions, to understand what is at the core of each issue. Address these objections with full honesty if you have an answer. If the issue needs additional work or research, state what process you will use to address the issue. Then make a mutual commitment for a future time when you can engage in further dialogue. The process at work here is to turn negative perceptions into features through innovative responses that support both your personal and organizational integrity as a solution provider.
PRESENTATION SKILLS
For many salespeople, and potential customers, sales presentations are nothing more than data dumps. Talking too much, presenting too soon, and just winging it on sales calls have grim consequences: lost momentum, stalls and objections, lost sales, extended sell cycles, margin erosion, and no clear path to improvement. Bottom line: an entire sales career can be mediocre at best without a clear road map to follow that sets up the sales presentation at the right time—when the customer wants to hear it. After delivering each presentation, analyze what was good, what was not so good, and what should be improved for your next presentation.
GAINING COMMITMENT
The principal mission of the salesperson is to gain commitment. That is why companies value the work salespeople do. To effectively capture a customer’s commitment, determine the objectives for every sales call at the beginning. When all features, benefits, advantages, questions, and objections have been covered, get closure by asking for the order. Ask all key stakeholders to make explicit commitments to a course of action. Get them to nod their heads in public or sign a virtual or symbolic “contract.”
Many presentations, proposals, or sales calls fail to produce desired outcomes simply because the salesperson did not achieve closure. This is not a time to be timid. Follow-through is important. Even casual requests for information or support benefit from clarifying what and when the work will be done. As human beings we are almost hard-wired to do things we said we would do, but if no one asks us to commit, we are happy to “do what we can,” with no guarantee of completion or priority. Do not drop the ball. Ask for clear commitments on as much of the work as possible.
PROPOSAL PREPARATION
Project managers may be called upon to prepare customer proposals, commonly referred to as RFPs (request for proposal) or RFQs (request for quotation) or even RFIs (request for information). This is usually a huge challenge, mainly because there is not enough time to interact with customers during proposal preparation. That situation leads to many assumptions that may affect the quality of the proposal and, in turn, the future project. The goal is to develop winning project proposals. Proposals are the basis for starting projects. Successful proposals are well planned, well written, cohesive, and competitive.
Proposals may be addressed to external or internal customers. All proposal efforts of any size have a proposal leader and a proposal team. The temporary nature of the proposal team requires that the proposal leader be able to quickly assemble and motivate the team. Communicate to the proposal team the need for the proposal and its importance to the organization.
A proposal tells the potential customer how you will achieve their requirements or needs. Winning a contract from any proposal requires a dedicated effort to develop the document for delivery to the potential customer. Successful proposal development requires discipline. The most difficult thing to do well in a proposal is to convey the proper message and commitment to perform the work. Involve the best specialists from all required areas to prepare the proposal. The proposal leader needs to ensure that all necessary tasks have a qualified person assigned to write a portion of the proposal. Develop a schedule for proposal work to ensure all critical dates are met. The schedule is very important to ensure that the proposal is delivered to the customer on time. In our experience, most times, proposal team members are pressed because of lack of time. This opens the door for mistakes or omissions. Plan tasks and time for proposal editing to detect any mistakes.
The strategy we suggest to follow to win a contract is:
Understand customer requirements and needs.
Know and analyze the offer from your competitors.
Assess what your organization can offer.
Make a decision about how to shape your proposal for the highest probability of winning.
Proposal Content
When preparing large and complex proposals, it is more convenient to do so step by step. Proposals usually address three areas for the customer:
The main components of a proposal are:
Executive summary: Highlights key aspects of the proposal. It is similar to a project objectives statement that states what work you are doing, why, how, and how much it costs.
Technical: A description of the work to be accomplished and the procedures to be used to do the work.
Management: The proposed method to manage the project work and the necessary information required to establish supplier credibility. This portion demonstrates that you have managed similar projects before.
Pricing: Proposed bid price and proposed terms and conditions.
Depending on the magnitude of the project, those components may be integrated in only one document or in separate documents, one each for the technical, management, and pricing portions of the proposal, along with an overview and summary.
Technical Component of the Proposal
This component addresses the actual details of what is being proposed. The usual sections that are included are:
Introduction
Statement of the problem
Technical discussion
Project plan
Task statement
Summary
Appendices.
Management Component of the Proposal
This component addresses the details of how the project will be managed. The usual sections included are:
Introduction
Project management approach
Organization history
Administrative information
Past experience
Summary.
Pricing Component of the Proposal
This component is concerned with the details of the costs for the project and the proposed contractual terms and conditions. The usual elements include:
Introduction
Pricing summary
Supporting details
Terms and conditions
Cost estimating techniques used
Summary.
The Problem to Solve
The most important part of any proposal development effort is identifying and understanding the problem that the customer wants you to solve. The way you present your understanding of the problem and the project you are proposing to solve it are critical to convincing the customer that you fully comprehend their concerns and that your proposal is the best one. It is essential that your explanation is factual, convincing, and accurate. Identifying the wrong problem or providing a subjective opinion will not convince the customer that your proposal is the best solution.
Descriptions of problems and solutions usually involve:
Nature of the problem
History of the problem
Characteristics of the optimal solution
Alternative solutions considered
Solution or approach selected.
The Sales Process for Proposals
Depending on the industry, the country, and the organizational culture, the length of the sales process can vary, but in general, the process comprises the following steps:
Sales Presentations
The complete project manager needs to develop skills in making sales presentations. Although some project managers have a natural ability to present, most of them need training and to acquire some presentation experience. One very effective way to do this is for the project manager to work with a mentor who has strong sales presentation skills.
Proposal presentations are always different, and special efforts are required to adapt them to the customer environment, organization, and situation. This requires time and courage. It is critical for the proposal presenter to transmit enthusiasm to the customer and to build confidence and trust. Demonstrate commitment to the customer’s best interests. To increase your chances of success, sequence your presentation to follow the decisions the customer will make. This is exactly how professional salespeople orchestrate their sales calls. As the buyer/seller relationship grows, the relationship becomes one of the differentiating factors that leads to more successful outcomes.
Remember that these skills require practice, passion, persistence, and patience. They cannot be gained overnight.
CASE STUDY
I (Englund) was assigned as a program manager to coordinate a massive proposal for a major account to update their systems and OEM computers using us instead of a competitor. We gathered lots of information from the customer engineering manager about technical requirements, including custom modifications that would be necessary.
Normally, our company was not interested in developing custom solutions, since we were a hardware vendor selling off-the-shelf systems. The size of this deal, however, made us take notice. To further promote that interest, I arranged interviews with the division general manager, manufacturing manager, and headquarters sales manager. I brought the field district manager, sales representative, and systems engineer into the factory to personally meet with these key managers. These person-to-person meetings ensured that everybody knew what was happening and that we could go ahead with the proposal, knowing in advance that all managers who would have to approve it were supportive.
The requirements were challenging, so we worked as a team to develop a solution. We summarized our understanding of the requirements, and then covered the technical aspects, support, qualifications, company commitment, and pricing. I brought in an editor to proofread the long proposal. A graphic artist created a cover page and presentation slides highlighting a half-dozen key aspects of the proposal. I drafted a letter that the CEO signed, expressing executive commitment to the deal. I also crafted a script for the presentation and briefed the group general manager (later to become the company CEO), who would join us in the presentation. We booked the corporate jet for our journey to the customer site.
I advised the sales rep to call on the customer general manager, who in essence would be the economic buyer, in addition to the technical recommenders with whom he regularly meets. This is an application of “selling at all levels.” I suggested the meeting to mitigate the possible risk that the general manager would be surprised or ill-informed about a large appropriation request coming across his desk. But the meeting I suggested did not happen; the sales rep received comments from the engineering departments that their inputs were sufficient. However, this is rarely the case. The meeting should have happened. We may have also gotten better information about the market and the customers’ future business.
All participants did an excellent job in presenting the proposal. They appeared as an integrated, well-coordinated team. The group general manager was especially effective, reinforcing the highlighted script along with adding personal touches— for example, saying, “I come with the full commitment of the CEO and my own to working with you as a partner.” The customer reaction was “You blew our socks off!” since the proposal far exceeded their expectations.
This experience underscored for me the importance of orchestrating a thorough involvement of all key players in a sales process. Meeting face-to-face, sharing possibilities and enthusiasm, and demonstrating how a solution would work were important factors. I have since used this process many times and codified the steps in an action sheet. It works every time!
As a coda to this story, our company did not get this business, simply because the customer experienced a deep downturn in its business right about that time and had to cancel its upgrade plans. We also realized that, both in this example and in general, there comes a time to stop selling.
Not all efforts, even those backed by best intentions and execution, turn out successful. But the process was still regarded as a superb effort and successful project. I wrote a letter to the approximately 80 stakeholders who participated and thanked them for their contributions. We had succeeded as an organization in how we applied sales best practices and learning for all involved in a large program.
SUMMARY
A key challenge facing many project, program, and portfolio managers is selling the value of their services and processes. Learning and embracing tenets of the sales process is necessary. Follow a selling process that facilitates relationship-building with buyers. In any new endeavor or purchase, buyers want to be “sold.” Buying is usually an emotional response, followed by rational reasoning to justify the decision. Building relationships is crucial to this process. Treat all stakeholders as potential buyers of your services. Be dedicated to serving customers, and present to customers what they really need. Probe for issues through carefully crafted, open-ended questions. Speak in their language. Sell to all levels in an organization, taking a holistic approach to the challenge. View objections as opportunities to “win the sale”; when buyers object, they are engaged and sharing what they really need.
Building a convincing proposal is a disciplined process. Proposals follow a general format composed of three components: technical, management, and pricing. The format provides a structure for describing your ability to meet the customer’s needs for a product or service. We believe winning proposals are written by competent professionals and a motivated team.
Know that you are continuously in sales cycles throughout project life cycles. Do not be a victim of lost sales or opportunities. Embrace the sales process as the means to secure necessary commitments, in a genuine manner worthy of a complete project manager.